On Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 2:04 PM, Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote:
> The link is to a fairly long Washintonian article about NBC News in the > wake of the Comcast takeover. It probably will make some waves among > political junkies mostly about the change in direction News VP Deborah > Turness wants to make and Joe Scarborough's ambitions. > > > http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/how-david-gregory-lost-his-job/index.php > I found it interesting, both for the backstage intrigue, and for the confirmation that they really don't know how to do real journalism in television any more. Half the piece is about how Comcast used its billions and its TV news assets to manipulate Washington to get its various proposals approved. The other half is basically about how to make shows like MTP relevant again. But the first thing is the main reason for the second. The relationship between television news and Washington is so cozy that there is little or no room for actual journalism there. Adding a studio audience, or a bandleader, is just the kind of irrelevant shit you would expect these people to be suggesting. The Jon Stewart suggestion is also illustrative of how much these people do not get; they thought of him in terms of the young demo he would supposedly bring to the show - but did not consider that their corporate culture would prohibit him from asking anything like the kinds of questions he does from his current platform (not to mention of course that Stewart is a comedian, not a journalist - but then that last is no longer really a job requirement any more). The Sunday morning shows do have a problem - it is the same one SNL has, which is that the internet and cable has already plowed over the ground during the week that used to be their virgin territory on the weekend. Also, the TV news landscape has long been so politically balkanized that the best and most popular TV "journalists" would seem automatically too biased one direction or the other. If I had a shot at shaping MTP, I think I would go with people who have some kind of independent, internet bona fides breaking real news, rather than a network hack who is, or will need to be, beholden to the Beltway system. MTP started as a place where politicians answered questions from newspaper journalists, and they should try to find their way back to some kind of equivalent of that. This would mean freeing themselves from the Tim Russert model (IMO, he was the problem, not the solution for what ails MTP), which is based on a cult of personality. MTP should not be about the celebrity of the moderator, but the credibility and independence of the people asking the questions, and the relevance and newsworthiness of the interview subject. I stopped watching these shows because I do not need to see 4 or 5 TV hacks warm-over conventional wisdom while they give White House, Congressional and Party hacks space to repeat their talking points un-challenged. I would like to see a show where they focus in on one guest, provide an in-depth backgrounder video that provides context, and then gives three independent journalists turns asking that subject any question they want, with time to get actual answers. The moderator could also ask an occasional question in the service of continuity, follow-up and balance. If absolutely necessary they could have a final segment where they talk about what they learned from the interview with each other, or some 4th journalist who did not participate in asking the questions. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
